In the prior art, various technologies have been developed for a vehicle to prevent unauthorized locking and unlocking of the doors or unauthorized starting of the engine. As one example of such an unauthorized operation prevention technology, patent document 1 describes the implementation of biometric authentication to authenticate an individual and permit the locking or unlocking of vehicle doors or permit the starting of the engine. In this technology, a camera or the like is used to acquire biometric information of a user, the biometric information is transmitted to a server with a mobile information terminal such as a mobile phone, and the server performs a highly accurate authentication process. When the biometric information is authenticated, the locking or unlocking of vehicle doors or the starting of the engine is permitted. When the biometric information is not authenticated, such operations are prohibited.
With the technology of patent document 1, when lending the vehicle to another person, the vehicle owner must use the mobile information terminal to communicate with the server and permit the locking and unlocking of the doors and the starting of the engine. This ensures security against crimes, such as vehicle thefts, since the vehicle owner must communicate with the server by himself or herself. However, when lending the vehicle to another person, the vehicle owner must use the portable information terminal to perform authentication whenever necessary. This is inconvenient when lending the vehicle to another person.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-36523